Scottie Pippen calls out Jeff Van Gundy Miami Heat prediction

Scottie Pippen apparently did not appreciate Jeff Van Gundy’s preseason prediction about the Miami Heat. If you’ll recall, ABC/ESPN NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy projected to the Miami Herald that the Heat would have a historic season and surpass the Chicago Bulls’ 72-10 record in the 1995-96 NBA season.

Obviously, that’s not going to happen. And given the Miami Heat’s 85-82 loss to an injured Boston Celtics team Sunday, things aren’t smelling so rosey for LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Co.

In a recent interview with Slam Magazine, Pippen shared his candid thoughts about the Miami Heat and Van Gundy.

SLAM: You came out on the winning end of that “Will the Heat win 72 games?” discussion. How’d you know it’d be so tough for them to win so many games?

SP: I just felt it was an insult to every team that’s played in this League to think that one team can be put together, and now all of a sudden we got—excuse my word—a jackass like Jeff Van Gundy saying they can win 72 games and break the Bulls’ record. Who is he? So that was just something that he totally took out of proportion, to some degree—with respect to those two players, or I would say two and a half players, since I don’t think Chris Bosh is half the player of LeBron James. But there’s no way those guys are gonna break any type of record. I don’t think they can break the franchise record in Miami, or the state of Florida, I should say.

Granted, Scottie Pippen may have taken the comment personally considering he competed on the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls team. And I wasn’t on the Miami Heat 72-game plus win bandwagon myself, but calling Jeff Van Gundy out of his name for doing his job is harsh.

It was just a prediction. Sometimes you get them right, sometimes you get them wrong.

Maybe this kind of response from Pippen is exactly why CBS NFL analyst Phil Simms refused to give a Super Bowl prediction during a conference call a few weeks back.

February 14th, 2011 at 12:16 pm

Doesn’t sound like Pippen has heard JVG talk very much lately. JVG carries himself as a bit of a clown. He’s not afraid to make (sometimes ridiculous) statements for the sake of entertainment.
I suspect, to have been an NBA head coach for so many years, JVG must be more intelligent and insightful than that of his on-air persona.